Slow or Not, Mets Plan to Keep on Running

ENLARGE

Second-year outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis will get the first opportunity to win the vacant spot atop the Mets' lineup.
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By

Jared Diamond

Feb. 21, 2013 8:56 p.m. ET

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.—As he enters his third season as Mets manager, Terry Collins wants his team to establish an offensive identity. That's tough to do with a lineup that doesn't exactly do any one thing all that well.

The Mets don't have much power (only two players on the current roster hit more than 15 home runs last season). They don't have much speed (only one team in the National League had fewer stolen bases in 2012). If this group excels at anything, it's striking out a bunch and wilting after the All-Star break.

With that in mind, Collins has turned his attention to something he and his coaching staff can control: ultra-aggressive base running. You don't need fast runners to try for extra bases. You just have to be willing to wave the slow runners in—consequences be damned.

Managers with slow teams like to talk about the importance of smart and aggressive base running. It's a polite way to mask the fact that their players have to huff and puff to avoid being thrown out at first from right field. Earlier this spring, Collins deadpanned, "We've got a lot of guys that aren't the fastest guys in the world."

But there is some evidence to suggest that the Mets can improve on the base paths. Their runners went from first base to third base on singles just 25.2% of the time last season, which ranked 23rd in baseball. They finished dead last in a statistic the website Baseball-Reference calls "bases taken," which counts the number of bases teams advance on, among other things, fly balls, wild pitches and passed balls. Those elements of base running have less to do with pure speed than they do instincts and hustle.

While coaches can't teach speed, they can teach fundamentals like secondary leads and the proper way to round the bases. That can allow a team to compensate for slow runners.

"Sometimes I think you surprise yourself that you make it there safely when you didn't think you would," outfielder Mike Baxter said. "It starts with making a conscious effort to apply pressure."

The Mets will spend the rest of spring training harping on base-running drills. They will preach aggressiveness. When Grapefruit League games start Saturday, third-base coach Tim Teufel will heed Collins's edict and keep the windmill spinning.

But all that work won't necessarily help when the season begins. These are professional baseball players. They all know how to take a secondary lead. They all know to check the positioning of the outfielders before every pitch. They all know to run hard.

That doesn't mean they will actually do all those things on a 95-degree day in Pittsburgh in the middle of July when the team's already 10 games out of first place.

"First-to-third is not speed. First-to-third is a mindset," base-running coach Tom Goodwin said. "You can work on base running all you want to. You can tell guys, 'Hey, we want you going first to third.' Until you get into a game and do it, it's really worth a hill of beans."

It will start with the top of the Mets' lineup, a potential problem spot and one of the many competitions Collins will need to sort out this spring. The Mets don't have a prototypical lead-off hitter, somebody with a high on-base percentage who causes havoc on the base paths.

Collins announced this week that outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis will bat first Saturday, giving him the first crack at winning the job.

As a rookie last season, Nieuwenhuis had a .315 OBP and struck out 98 times in 282 at-bats. Shortstop Ruben Tejada remains an option as well.

Whoever wins that spot will be expected to run. Considering that the Mets will probably have trouble scoring this season, they may have no other choice.

"It's a big responsibility," Nieuwenhuis said. "You just have to be aggressive and smart."

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